


get it credited

by ivermectin



Category: Gossip Girl (TV 2007), Jessica Jones (TV)
Genre: Gen, Marijuana, POV Jessica Jones, Recreational Drug Use, and friendship i guess, but mostly just the one everybody knows, contains gossip girl season 6 spoilers, implied near death experiences, it's just a conversation, that is - who is gossip girl (or at least who they tried to convince us is gossip girl)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-26
Updated: 2020-12-26
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:27:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28345392
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ivermectin/pseuds/ivermectin
Summary: “I will admit this is non-conventional,” Jessica says. “Getting high with a client? Fuck no, I’m a professional. This is good weed, though.”“Yeah, well, we had a near death experience, we’re allowed,” Nate says, raising an eyebrow, handing her back the joint. “Plus, I haven’t decided if I need your services yet.”
Relationships: Jessica Jones & Nate Archibald





	get it credited

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't watched JJ in ages, but this dynamic smacked me in the face out of nowhere and I REALLY Needed Nate and Jessica friendship, and before I knew it, this entire thing just spilled out of me. timeline wise, this happens after the GG reveal but before the "5 years later" and. i think possibly pre-series for Jessica, before everything that happens in s1 happens? I'm not super sure. it could also fit after S1, i think. well. whatever.
> 
> yes, this is very niche crossover rarepair fic nonsense. i'm just writing what i want to see.

“You’ve had a hell of a day, but you don’t even fucking care,” Jessica says, lying back in the grass. She’s not sure what to do with the feeling of it – saying it aloud, lying out here with this nice boy who’d invited her over to his place after they’d escaped pursuit from some group of enemies she still hadn’t identified. He’s a lacrosse player, she remembers – he’s fast, not even winded, and he looks like he’s used to far worse shenanigans than this. “By now you’ve understood that trouble follows me around, but for some reason, you think none of it is my fault.”

He smiles at her, warm like honey, a smile that could melt butter. She’s high enough that it takes a moment for her to remember his name, and when she does she feels like she’s forgetting something that comes with it. Maybe it’s the weed, or maybe it’s just everything hitting her all at once. She takes the joint from his hand though, tries to place him.

“Hey, are you the same Nate Archibald who’s Carter Baizen’s ex?” she asks.

Nate frowns, looking unsettled. “You know Carter?”

“Unfortunately.” Jessica passes him the joint back. “Met him when I was younger. Accidentally broke his wrist. You know how it is. Regular stuff.”

“You’re a strange woman, Jessica Jones,” Nate says, teasingly, a lilt in his voice like they’re both in on a joke that nobody else is in on.

“Pfft, everyone knows that,” Jessica says, rolling her eyes. “Have you got anything better for me?”

“I don’t know.” Nate’s frowning, thoughtful. “I keep feeling like there’s something more I know about you. Something I’ve forgotten.”

“You’ve seen me in the papers,” Jessica guesses.

“Maybe I have,” Nate says, no weight to it. He’s thinking about something, and he looks far away and distant. She gets it – she really does.

“So,” she says, to the point. “You said you had something you wanted me to investigate. But you’re tentative about hiring me.”

“I don’t know, my friends all think I shouldn’t go for it,” Nate admits. He’s staring at Jessica like he thinks she’s pretty, and she gets it – she’s been looking at him like that, too. He’s attractive. She would do him, no doubt about it. But this is business, and he looks sort of sad in between phases, like when he isn’t paying attention to his own expression. Like he’s used to pretending to be happy, but sometimes the sadness just spills through anyway.

“I will admit this is non-conventional,” Jessica says. “Getting high with a client? Fuck no, I’m a professional. This is good weed, though.”

“Yeah, well, we had a near death experience, we’re allowed,” Nate says, raising an eyebrow, handing her back the joint. “Plus, I haven’t decided if I need your services yet.”

“Well, if you want something to be found out, I’m good at it,” Jessica points out. “I’m the best.”

He smiles again, but this one’s nostalgic. “You sound a bit like one of my friends. She’s got a penchant for scheming, actually. I would ask her for help but I feel like she’s too close to the case to get a good lead. So am I, really. And the rest of my friends, and everyone I know. We’re all embroidered into it.”

“Tell me what the thing is, Nate,” she says. It’s not forceful or even firm, but she’s never been particularly good at being friendly and encouraging, though she tries.

“You’ve probably heard of, uh, Gossip Girl? The ultimate gossip blog, basically?”

“Documenting parts of Manhattan with a cruel, pointless, almost petty focus, yeah, yeah,” Jessica drones off. “Wasn’t it revealed that your friend was behind it? What’s his name, Dan Humphrey?”

“That’s the thing,” Nate says. He looks incredibly sober, and also incredibly sad, and for a minute Jessica’s heart aches for him. He almost reminds her of Trish, but she blinks that parallel away. “I don’t think it could be him. It doesn’t make sense.”

Jessica sits up, thinking. On one hand, Nate could just be ready to refuse to see his friend in a true light, loyal to Dan to an extent that made him heavily biased. But, on the other, running a site like Gossip Girl wasn’t something anyone could do, or even something easy to hide. If his suspicion was coming from a place of deep thought, there was merit in taking it seriously.

“What makes you doubt that?”

“I know Dan,” Nate says. “And I know the level of effort, connections and surveillance that would be needed to pull off a site like that. There’s no way it could be him.”

“Do you think someone’s blackmailing him?”

Nate sighs, and he looks, again, impossibly sad. It makes him look older than he is, like a man in his forties. “I hope not. But he could have enemies. It could be anyone – all of us have enemies. That’s possibly what you expected to hear, but it is what it is.”

“Which is why you need someone from the outside,” Jessica says. “Okay. Cool. I’ll see what I can uncover.”

Nate nods, stubs out the joint, shakes her hand. He’s already asked about rates, already mentioned that money won’t be an issue. She usually doesn’t trust rich people, especially people like him, with WASPy last names and family money, but there’s something almost naïve in the way he behaves that makes her think there’s more to him than meets the eye.

There is also the mystery of why he’s so fucking sad, and she’s damned if she’s not curious.

“Is that it?” Nate asks.

“For now, yeah,” Jessica says, getting up, dusting the grass off her jeans, giving him a little wave. “Thanks for the joint. I’ll call you if I have any leads.”

“Okay,” Nate says softly. “Thank you.”

Later on, on the train, she’ll realise that she never really got an answer on the Carter Baizen thing. She’ll wonder if that’s something she even needs to prod at. Googling Dan Humphrey, and ending up on an archived list of his fiancée Serena’s blog from 2011, she guesses not.

Something doesn’t add up, but she’s Jessica Jones. She’ll get to the bottom of it. She always does, one way or another.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading, hope you liked!  
> I'm going to rewatch (?) / continue watching (??) jessica jones. so you might see more of her from me if all goes well (no promises, though!)


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